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Union Meeting
Updated
On: Sep 01, 2010 (23:27:00)
All Members
Next Wednesday September 8, 2010 is the first union meeting after the summer break. As always attendence by all members is requested!
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“Many cities and towns . . . have carefully reviewed the GIC option and found that joining would not result in savings and might actually increase their health care costs,’’
Updated
On: Aug 08, 2010 (17:37:00)
By Sean P. Murphy, Globe Staff | August 3, 2010
Fourteen cities and towns that have moved their employees, retirees, and elected officials from their own municipal-based health care insurance plans into the state’s much larger, more flexible system collectively saved more than $30 million their first year in the program, according to a new report.
“This was the first time we went back and checked, and uniformly the cities and towns said they saved money,’’ said Joel Barrera, author of the report by the Boston Foundation.
“The savings aren’t fantasy; they are real life,’’ said Barrera, deputy director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, an agency representing 101 Boston-area communities.
The study relies on self-reported fiscal data on the communities’ first year in the Group Insurance Commission, the state health care program, which covers some 300,000 state employees, retirees, and elected officials.
Barrera said first-year comparisons are available because communities switching to the commission could easily calculate what health care insurance costs would have been if they had stayed in existing plans, based on past experience. But the savings continue year after year, he said.
“Going into the GIC has saved my city $3 million,’’ said Mayor Robert Dolan of Melrose, which joined the commission last year. “It’s the real deal.’’
Other communities cited in the report include Quincy, which says it saved $10 million its first year in the state system; Weymouth, $6 million; Watertown, $2.4 million; and Millis, $425,000.
Not all the savings has been put in municipal treasuries, however. Some of the communities have returned a portion of the savings to employees in the form of lower premiums.
The Legislature in 2007 amended state law to allow municipalities to move employees, retirees, and elected officials into the commission, which for decades has managed health care insurance for state employees. But under the law, municipal officials need the assent of at least 70 percent of a committee of local labor leaders who represent municipal workers.
With few exceptions, unions across the state have rejected such a move, saying it would cost their members more out-of-pocket money, particularly in the form of higher copayments.
“We all know that it will save cities and towns money if they increase copays,’’ said James Barry, a legislative agent of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. “But what if you have a sick kid, or you have a chronic medical condition? This would really hurt you. And we have a responsibility to both our healthy and our sick members.’’
Michael Gallagher, Weymouth’s director of administrative services, said he hears a lot of complaints about out-of-pocket expenses since the town joined the commission — deductibles are $750 for families and $250 for individuals, for example.
“Still, it was the right thing to do for the community,’’ he said.
About $4 million of Weymouth’s savings has gone to employees in the form of higher town contributions toward premiums; $2 million has gone to the town, he said.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health care insurance provider, does not subscribe to the view that the commission necessarily saves municipalities money, however.
Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant insurer among municipalities, does not offer plans through the commission.
“Many cities and towns . . . have carefully reviewed the GIC option and found that joining would not result in savings and might actually increase their health care costs,’’ John Coughlin, a Blue Cross Blue Shield vice president, wrote in a letter published in the Globe earlier this year.
The Globe has reported that exploding municipal health care costs are forcing cities and towns to cut services and ask more of taxpayers.
Municipalities pay as much as 89 percent of premiums, while typically requiring $5 copayments for office visits and $25 for emergency room treatments.
The Boston Foundation and other groups pushed the Legislature hard this year to lower the threshold of union support required for a community to join the commission.
They also advocated for giving municipal officials the authority to increase copayments and make other changes in local plans without union concurrence.
But attempts to revamp the law failed in the Legislature, and mayors are considering a ballot initiative in 2012.
“The trajectory of municipal health care insurance costs is completely unsustainable,’’ said Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation. “This report is ample demonstration of the potential for cost savings.’’
Sean Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com.
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Lawrence Mill
Posted
On: Aug 08, 2010 (17:24:20)
of a missing person or aircraft comes in.
By June Q. Wu, Globe Correspondent
A fire at a former Merrimac Paper Mill building in Lawrence this morning that took firefighters from eight other communities to put out underscored the limitations of the city’s understaffed fire department, said the city's fire chief.
While the cause of the fire has not been determined, Deputy Chief John Marsh said the blaze was probably set by homeless people who frequent the abandoned building.
No one was found on site, Marsh said, but the lack of machinery in the property ruled out natural causes.
“It’s empty, but it’s full of trash, plenty of fuel for fire,” Marsh said. “It’s a hangout for vagrants, so it’s suspicious.”
The brick building has been vacant for the past five years, and firefighters battled a similar blaze there just a year ago, said firefighter Larry Foote.
Shortly after this morning’s fire was put out, firefighters responded to another blaze on the same property.
The fires reinforced the fire department’s growing concerns that recent staff cuts have crippled the department’s ability to serve the city’s 70,000 residents.
“Within five minutes of being there, we were completely out of equipment and people,” Marsh said of this morning’s fires. “We waited almost half an hour for a ladder truck to show up from Lowell.”
Once firefighters from nearby communities arrived, they were able to control the fire by climbing up on neighboring roofs to throw water at the burning building, Marsh said.
The smoke-stained building will be boarded up later today after officials on-site finish the investigation, he said.
The Lawrence Fire Department laid off 23 firefighters on July 1 due to citywide budget cuts.
Including retirements, the department’s workforce has 60 fewer firefighters compared to two years ago, Marsh said.
This morning, the department had a total of 15 firefighters working – less than half the number of firefighters per shift several years ago, Marsh said.
Calling upon neighboring fire departments for additional support – once a backup option -- became the norm.
“We’ll respond to Lowell three, four times a year – it’s a system that’s never supposed to be abused,” Marsh said. “Now we’re abusing it. Right now, we rely on them three, four times this week.”
Marsh said he fears residents of the densely populated old mill city face are at increased risk of suffering damage from fires with the workforce stretched thin.
“Part of the problem is we have a lot of wooden buildings with maybe one car's width between them,” Marsh said. “The other day, we lost two houses because of the proximity and because we didn’t have enough people.”
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Don't Think It Can't Happen In Chelsea
Updated
On: Jul 12, 2010 (19:35:00)
Lawrence lays off 23 firefighters; closes third station
By Yadira Betances and Mark E. Vogler Staff Writers
LAWRENCE — The city laid off 23 firefighters yesterday in the latest move by Mayor William Lantigua to balance the budget.
In addition to the layoffs, several high-ranking fire officials were demoted and the Engine 9 firehouse at 161 Bailey St., was closed — the third fire station in the city that has been shut down due to the city's financial crisis."Lawrence is a busy city for fire and police," acting fire Chief Brian Murphy said yesterday. "We know it and we've told them, but it fell on deaf ears."
Members of the firefighters union met with city officials Tuesday afternoon, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on concessions to keep firefighters working."We were hoping to get some movement to avoid layoffs," said Lenny Degnan, Mayor Lantigua's chief of staff. "To be able to get people back, the union needs to make concessions."
"We don't want to lay off people, but we can't afford it in the financial situation we're in," Degnan said.The layoffs went into effect at 8 a.m. Some high-ranking officials were demoted, including one captain to lieutenant and two lieutenants to firefighters.
The closure of the Engine 9 firehouse on Bailey Street was the department's third since last August, when Engine 6 at 480 Howard St. (Prospect Hill) and Engine 8 at 298 Ames St. (Tower Hill) were closed. Fire apparatus will be moved from Bailey Street to South Broadway."Clearly, moving the fire station out of my neighborhood is going to increase the response time to any emergency," said City Councilor Marc Laplante, who represents residents of the District F South Lawrence East neighborhood — which includes Bailey Street.
"Whether it be police or fire, we want to keep things at the same level that it was two weeks ago. We need to do all we can to ensure those numbers don't drop, and that's one of the main reasons why I voted against the budget two weeks ago," Laplante said.
"I'm hoping that it doesn't take a tragedy for the city to move in the direction to beef up the fire and police services. Right now, we're beyond a skeleton. For a city of our population and our complexity, we need to have the kind of fire protection we had before these cuts," he said.
Laplante worried the station closure and layoffs could have serious consequences for an urban fire department that has many mills with wooden floors soaked with oil from the height of the city's textile days. The councilor said he also wonders about the risk of the city becoming too dependent on out-of-town help to fight fires.
"My concern is that we're relying on mutual aid to provide for core services, and I'm not sure that our neighboring communities are going to continue providing us mutual aid when we're not doing all we should be doing to provide our own fire safety," Laplante said.
The closure of the Bailey Street firehouse has sparked fears in the neighborhood about public safety and the future of the city, according to Mark Pettengill, president of the South Common Central Neighborhood Association.
"These are the first responders and these are the guys who everybody kind of takes for granted being there — and now they're not going to be there," said Pettengill, whose group represents about 40 families in the area.
"This is also the fire company that does the river watch, which is also a great concern to the people in the neighborhood. People are getting afraid about the loss of public safety. They're also concerned about losing business because of this," Pettengill said.
He said it's unrealistic to think the city can fix its fiscal problems by cutting back on public safety.
About a year ago, the city had close to 130 firefighters before it closed two fire stations.Murphy said the city now has 72 firefighters — including captains, lieutenants and firefighters — barely enough for a city with half of Lawrence's 80,000 residents.
All firefighters and officers on duty yesterday responded to the fire at a single-family home on Kingston Street.On the scene were three fire engines, a ladder truck and a rescue truck manned by a lieutenant and firefighters.In addition to the shortage of personnel, Murphy said there are several areas in the city with little water pressure."We don't have adequate pressure because the water mains have not been maintained through the years," Murphy said.
If there had been a second call while fighting the Kingston Street blaze, Murphy said Lawrence would have had to call for mutual aid from Andover, North Andover and Lowell.
In his 31 years with the Fire Department, Murphy said he has watched it gradually become smaller."It has been dismantled to the level which is totally inadequate today," Murphy said.
Firefighter union President Patrick Driscoll, did not return repeated telephone calls.
Those laid off yesterday include (least seniority first and the most seniority last): Gary Poulin, David Amero, Estaban Arias, Joseph Carberry, Steven Lefebvre, Matthew Nadeau, Wayne Leduc, Mark Aliberti, Ian McDermott, Miguel Baez, Timothy Boutin, James Driscoll, Roger Jamesom, Ryan Lavallee, Deborah Nickerson, Brian Raineri, Tara Reardon, Michael Swarbrick, Mark Verville, Jason Belkus, Jay Flores, Rodney Rivera and Matthew McInnis.
Those demoted include Capt. John Meaney to lieutenant; acting Capt. Paul Maccarone to lieutenant; Lt. Mark Aliberti to firefighter/laid off; Lt. Tara Reardon to firefighter/laid off; and acting Lt. T. Kennedy to firefighter.
In addition, two lieutenant positions have been eliminated.
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